AIOPS+
It’s now or never for more perfect software Now is the time to celebrate how software is helping us, everyday consumers, to get our daily tasks done and make our lives easier. For instance, from paying bills via an app or streaming a film, most of our day-to-day activities are digital and our reliance on digital infrastructure has never been greater than during COVID-19. BY GREG OUILLON, CTO AT NEW RELIC Prioritising software WITH OUR DAILY CONSUMPTION being largely digital, companies need to prioritise software, or they will risk losing customers and revenue. There is currently a real struggle to retain talent in the tech industry, which shows no signs of abating, and the global shortage of skilled software developers is at the heart of it. Recent research commissioned by New Relic found that 37% of UK respondents had difficulty recruiting the right development and infrastructure skills, making it a major barrier to software and systems performance within their organisation. Interestingly, the figures showed that Australian businesses (50%) were struggling more than those in Japan (43%), UK (37%), US (30%), Germany (30%) and France (29%). In addition, existing engineering teams are facing increased difficulties in managing new software and infrastructure, all while working from home. That said, nine out of ten of the best performing businesses surveyed said that developing and deploying more perfect software has helped them to overcome
challenges during the pandemic. The top 25% of respondents are identified as ‘More Perfect Software Leaders,’ having reported higher success against business metrics like financial performance and growth, pace of innovation, employee engagement, and brand perception. For these leaders, it is a strategic priority for them to: Leverage cloud technology – By migrating applications and infrastructure onto the cloud, it allows businesses to enhance agility and speed to market. Observe – A single source of truth on how software and systems are performing in real time provides holistic insights that can shape software design and development, thus allowing teams to rapidly identify and resolve issues. Monitor data intelligence – Evaluating software performance data and incorporating it into customer experience with business data can enable companies to develop solutions that answer customers’ needs. Build resilience – Businesses should consider employing chaos testing and automated remediation to minimise errors and downtime while still enabling faster innovation. The research also found that 77% of leaders adopted chaos testing, compared with just 30% of laggards, and 89% of leaders engage in automated remediation in contrast to 5% of laggards. With these systems in place, 83% of leaders experienced only five software and systems outages per month, while 49% of laggards faced 11 to 15.
Meeting customers’ needs Today, the rise and fall of a company is all down to how well they engage with their customers, no matter which industry the business falls into. So, how do companies meet their customers’ demands? Most businesses today are using software to service
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ISSUE II 2021
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